Today, we'll be wrapping up our three-part series on the Louvre with a look at the history of the Louvre as a museum. We'll take a look at the origins and development of the museum's collections, as well as the origins and development of the museum itself. We'll see that the museum and its collections are not one and the same. The artworks displayed within the Louvre have been accumulated over almost 500 years, but were not accessible to the public for much of that time. The museum, on the other hand, is a much more recent development. With roots in the 18th century, it made art consistently visible to the general public for the first time in French history.
Our usual caution: the primary venue for this content is the stories feature on my Instagram page. All of the virtual visits will be saved in my story highlights. The purpose of the blog posts is to allow a greater audience (especially those without social media accounts) to benefit from the same content.
With that in mind, let's explore how the Louvre was transformed from a royal palace to the most-visited art museum in the world.
Thanks for following along with this three-part series on one of France's most well-known buildings. I hope you've enjoyed learning about its construction history, its collections, and the growth of the museum we visit today.
Starting next week, we'll be switching to a two-day-a-week posting schedule, and we'll be starting a new series: "deep dives" into some of France's most beloved artworks. Stay tuned!
And, if you've got requests for specific works of art you'd like to see featured in this new series, please drop me a line! I'm always looking for ways to tailor my content to your interests!